Determinants and cost of production of dates in Pakistan: An analytical study

Present study is an attempt to analyse the production determinants and the cost of production of dates using causal approach of Ordinary Least Squares Methods using secondary data. The costs associated with the agriculture production are computed from labour costs, expenses incurring on the pesticides and fertilizers and the cost of seeds and amount of rent when the piece of land is acquired on contract basis. Provision of credit facility to the farmers and growers can play a major role in softening the constraints of the farmers and motivate them to enhance production of dates. Moreover, technical and technological advancement and adoption of the cost saving technology by farmers can also help farmers improve quality and per acre yield of their production. The findings of the study suggest that the employment in agriculture sector is the most important factor affecting production of dates followed by mechanization and technological advancement and third is the credit to the farmers. All coefficients have significance of less than 0.05 with substantially large generalizability power.